Sex TapeReview

Looking to rev up their near-nonexistent sex life, young married parents Jay (Jason Segel) and Annie (Cameron Diaz) decide to make a sex tape wherein they'll try out every position demonstrated in the classic book The Joy of Sex.

All goes well -- until Jay's iPad is unintentionally synced with all the iPads they'd given friends and family as gifts, allowing their private sex tape to possibly end up being seen by their loved ones. Scrambling to retrieve the iPads, Jay and Annie soon realize how dreadfully out of touch they are with modern technology and how much worse their situation's going to get before it gets better.

As salacious as the subject matter would appear to be, Sex Tape actually has a degree of wholesomeness to it not unlike Judd Apatow's films. Ultimately, it's about a married couple trying to make their marriage work and to rekindle the spark between them. They just so happen to do it by making a porno. While there's some flashes of nudity and an overall raunchiness, Sex Tape is very judicious in what it actually shows of the actors' bodies. Indeed, both actors have revealed a lot more of themselves in past films. So if you're going to Sex Tape to see some kind of Nymphomaniac with Cameron Diaz then you're certainly at the wrong movie.

Having previously worked together on Bad Teacher, Diaz and Segel have good comedic chemistry together and you buy them as a longtime couple. Their characters here are reminiscent of Vacation's Clark and Ellen Griswold, especially once Jay and Annie's quest to destroy their sex tape leads them to increasingly zany and desperate measures. Their final "mission" reminded me of Clark losing his s**t and breaking into Walley World.

Segel's weight loss for the film is jarringly noticeable at times; he looks gaunt and, frankly, sickly at certain points, which pulls one out of the movie. Jason, not everyone needs to go the Christian Bale route for their movies!

While the movie belongs to Diaz and Segel, the supporting cast definitely has their chance to shine, the biggest standout being Rob Lowe as the publishing executive looking to turn Annie's popular "mommy blog" into a family-friendly cash cow. His character, Hank, isn't quite as docile a family man as he seems, and the movie's funniest and longest set-piece takes place at his mansion while Annie and Jay attempt to steal back an iPad they gave him so he won't see their sex tape and thus kill her potential deal. Between Jay's feverish battle with Hank's dog and Lowe's facade cracking apart, this sequence offers many of the flick's biggest laughs.

Ellie Kemper and the ubiquitous Rob Corddry also generate yuks as Jay and Annie's long-married best friends whose discovery of their pals' sex tape just might be the missing ingredient their own marriage needs. Meanwhile, their son Howard (Harrison Holzer) also reveals himself to be a force to be reckoned with. And as has been reported elsewhere, Jack Black has a small but scene-stealing role in the movie.

While Sex Tape for the most part clips along at a decent speed, there are a few noticeable lulls and pacing issues along the way. The story is ultimately a formulaic and thus predictable one with precious few curveballs thrown at our characters along the way. Overall, though, Sex Tape manages to work as a safer-than-expected R-rated comedy.